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Thread ID: 98058	2009-03-09 23:54:00	Swapping Hard Drive	Oose (14303)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
755102	2009-03-09 23:54:00	I have a laptop with a 150gb hard drive. I also have a seperate 250gb hard drive for the exact same model laptop which was left by a computer technician who was doing some testing on my laptop. (I had an issue with my laptop and they thought it might have been the hard drive so changed it and it turned out it wasn't and anyway I've ended up with a spare larger hard drive). I was considering attempting to swap the two hard drives myself so I have the larger one in my computer. I haven't done anything like this before but back myself to open up my laptop and do the actual physical change (but am more unsure about swapping the data from my existing to the new hard drive...). Before I rip into this was wondering if anyone had any smart ideas or just plain think I am being foolish trying to do this and its only going to end in tears?? Alternatively, (and I don't even know if this is possible), I was wondering if I could somehow buy something (or take it somewhere) and turn the spare hard drive into some sort of removeable USB hard drive? Thanks	Oose (14303)
755103	2009-03-09 23:57:00	Install it then reinstall Windows / whatever it is Probably wouldnt work, if you just transfer everything, from the old to the new If you want to use it as a removable hdd, just buy an enclosure for it	Speedy Gonzales (78)
755104	2009-03-10 00:50:00	Great, thanks. Didn't realise it would be quite so simple as buying an external HDD case for it. Without sounding too stupid, how do I find out what sort of case I need?	Oose (14303)
755105	2009-03-10 00:58:00	ie: If its a 2.5 hdd (it probably is, since its a laptop) Something like this (www.dse.co.nz) Is the 250 GB IDE or SATA?? If its SATA, then you'll need an enclosure that has a SATA connection on it Does the laptop have USB 2 ports (not 1.1) on it?	Speedy Gonzales (78)
755106	2009-03-10 01:13:00	It is SATA 250gb 5,400rpm . Don't know how to tell if it is 2 . 5" or 3 . 5"? Laptop has USB 2 ports . Thanks again .	Oose (14303)
755107	2009-03-10 01:19:00	Changing the hard drives will be easy, all you ned to do is use something like DriveImageXML to clone the original HDD to the new one. Once that is done, just swap out the the hard drives, usuually you just need to take out a screw. To clone it over you will need an enclosure or a usb adapter Blam	Blam (54)
755108	2009-03-10 01:23:00	Easy enough to clone the original Drive to the larger drive - what you would need to do is get an adapter that will fit the Pin arrangement with a USB Connector for the larger Drive. There are two basic types of drives IDE(PATA) or SATA as Shown Here (www.imagef1.net.nz) once you have the Correct connector, you can connect the Larger drive to the laptop,with the USB connection, then using an imaging program (many free ones about) simply clone the small drive to the larger one - making an exact image of the drive. Turn off the laptop, remove the smaller drive, plug in the Larger drive, start the laptop, it will start up, detect the new drive, install some drivers, ask to reboot and away you go, all your programs, data every thing will be exactly the same, just have more space because of the larger drive. I do this almost every day in one form or another, you can also remove the HDD from the laptop, attach it to another standard PC, along with the new Drive and clone that way.	wainuitech (129)
755109	2009-03-10 01:33:00	Great thanks. Using a bit of common sense (and measuring the drive...) I've figured its a 2.5" hdd. So once I find a 2.5" SATA enclosure for the spare drive I can find a suitable imaging program and clone the small drive to the larger one, swap them around, check everything works ok, clear everything off the smaller one (now spare one) and will end up with a bigger drive on my laptop and a spare functional external hdd. Trust I'm on the right track and all sounds pretty straight forward (famous last words...). Thanks	Oose (14303)
755110	2009-03-10 01:37:00	Great thanks. Using a bit of common sense (and measuring the drive...) I've figured its a 2.5" hdd. So once I find a 2.5" SATA enclosure for the spare drive I can find a suitable imaging program and clone the small drive to the larger one, swap them around, check everything works ok, clear everything off the smaller one (now spare one) and will end up with a bigger drive on my laptop and a spare functional external hdd. Trust I'm on the right track and all sounds pretty straight forward (famous last words...). Thanks Thats about all there is to it - Yep!	wainuitech (129)
755111	2009-03-10 02:13:00	Followed this thread intensely as I would like to replace my laptop's 80GB IDE hard drive with a larger one. I never done this before and am therefore a bit nervous. May I ask a couple of questions: 1) what about disk partition when cloning drives. do they clone the same amount or the ratio? 2) can I replace my IDE drive with a EIDE or PATA one? 3) materials for hard drive replacement: new hard drive, hard drive enclosure, imaging program. Your guys' words made it sound easy to do this work. Many thanks.	Cyberhuskey (13067)
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